The Bottom Line

VerticalResponse provides a complete package of email marketing tools best suited for small companies beginning their email marketing efforts.

Why Go With VerticalResponse?

With extremely competitive pricing and a complete tool set that offers everything small businesses need for email marketing, VerticalResponse is an easy-to-learn email marketing platform, ideal for small to medium-sized businesses or nonprofits.

VerticalResponse has won over 15 awards, including Gold in the Stevie Winner American Business Award and the 2014 Best in the Biz Small or Medium Business Service of the Year.

For those without designing or coding experience, VerticalResponse makes it easy to customize the templates with a drag-and-drop editor, and the upper price tiers offer personalized email management support directly from the VerticalResponse team.

The addition of an informative reporting tool and a live chat system make VerticalResponse an optimal email marketing platform option for any small business.

What It Offers

Mobile-friendly drag-and-drop editors

Customizable templates

Reporting tools

Scheduling

Web publishing

Surveys

Automation

Contact management

API integrations

More Reasons to Choose VerticalResponse

VerticalResponse has several ideal features for cost-conscious businesses or nonprofits. It provides up to 300 contacts and 4,000 emails free per month. For nonprofits, it ups that to 10,000 emails per month for no extra charge.

VerticalResponse’s most basic paid plans include phone support and an email system, which is very useful for people just getting started on email marketing. If you upgrade to the pro plan, one of VerticalResponse’s designers will create a custom template for you. The pro plus plans include social media marketing and custom email marketing management, which can be a fitting option for small businesses that can’t afford to hire someone to do their marketing.

Templates

VerticalResponse offers eight templates and the option to build one from scratch or import HTML files. The templates include options for newsletters, promotions, invites and other general uses. The design of the templates feels generic, so we recommend either having someone on the VerticalResponse team design a personalized template or hiring a professional to do so.

All of the templates are mobile, desktop and tablet friendly and feature an easy drag-and-drop template as well.

Pricing

When it comes to price, it’s tough to beat VerticalResponse. Its free option is impressive, with 4,000 emails and up to 300 contacts per month. The addition of 15 percent off for nonprofits and bulk discounts, with monthly and pay-as-you-go options with no contract, make VerticalResponse the cheapest service we’ve seen.

For a mere $22 per month, businesses can send unlimited emails to 1,000 contacts. Add $10 to that, and users get a personalized template and advanced Google Analytics-style reporting that is easy to understand.

Ease of Use

For basic email marketing functions, including creating and sending emails, reporting on campaigns, making simple autoresponders and scheduling, VerticalResponse is ideal. However, if you’re looking to set up complex automations with robust CRM integration, then VerticalResponse may not be for you.

Simple is what VerticalResponse does best. It’s easy to figure out how to carry out a task in the dashboard, but it struggles to offer a complete overview of CRM and email marketing like other similar services do.

Its drag-and-drop editor is easy to use, but the options for fonts and content modules are limited in scope. That being said, the support system is very responsive and can help make the most of a company’s email marketing. The support community and live chat features help users get the most out of VerticalResponse.

Features

The advanced reporting tool VerticalResponse offers is one of its best features. With data that covers device, demographic information and funnel optimization, it feels a lot like Google Analytics and is impressive in scope.

Where VerticalResponse falls short, however, is its standard templates and dashboard. The standard templates look antiquated, rather than cutting edge. It will take a designer with coding experience to tweak the templates appropriately. VerticalResponse’s dashboard also feels a bit overwhelming, with a somewhat garish color scheme. While it’s immediately clear how the autoresponders fit into the campaigns, and setting up an initial campaign is easy, it takes work to figure out how to use VerticalResponse’s more in-depth features.

That being said, VerticalResponse’s upper price tiers offer personal email marketing support directly from its team and include services such as personalized email templates, social media posts and monthly newsletters. For those who would rather pay out of pocket for email marketing services, this could be a good fit. .

Customer Support

VerticalResponse has live chat, a support phone line and email support offered Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m., with a guaranteed reply within 24 hours Monday–Friday and within 48 hours on Saturday and Sunday. Support often replies quickly and is eager to help.

It also has a community forum with frequently asked questions and resources to improve email marketing. The support community topics covered include creating new emails, creating lists, pricing questions, using the drag-and-drop editor and much more.

Using the live chat during the week and email support during the weekend will produce the optimal results. Just make sure you check the forum community first! There’s a good chance someone else has had a similar problem, and even though the community isn’t as active as it once was, users can find what they’re looking for.

VerticalResponse is also active on Twitter and Facebook and consistently offers advice and best practices from its social channels.

Review in Short

VerticalResponse provides a cost-effective option for email marketing — especially for those starting out with a small list or those that are nonprofits. Depending on the level chosen, VerticalResponse offers drag-and-drop templates, personalized email templates, advanced reporting tools, survey abilities, autoresponders and API integrations.

When it comes to the depth of the tool and quality of the templates, VerticalResponse may leave power users with something to be desired, but it’s an ideal choice for those with a small budget and basic email marketing needs.

About VerticalResponse

San Francisco-based VerticalResponse aims to deliver a comprehensive and cost-effective emailing service to its customers. Founded in 2001 by Janine Popick, the company secured $1.4 million in funding and turned a profit four years after it was founded.

VerticalResponse purchased Roost, a social media marketing technology company, in 2011 and was acquired by the Deluxe Corporation in 2013. The Deluxe Corporation is planning on integrating VerticalResponse with its Deluxe Marketing Suite in 2017 to become an all-in-one platform.

VerticalResponse has won over 15 awards including Gold in the Stevie Winner American Business Award and the 2014 Best in the Biz Small or Medium Business Service of the Year.

It also conducts market research and has been quoted by numerous news sources, including Forbes, The Miami Herald and Business Week.

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This site is a free online resource that strives to offer helpful content and comparison features to its visitors. Please be advised that the operator of this site accepts advertising compensation from companies that appear on the site, and such compensation impacts the location and order in which the companies (and/or their products) are presented, and in some cases may also impact the rating that is assigned to them. To the extent that ratings appear on this site, such rating is determined by our subjective opinion and based on a methodology that aggregates our analysis of brand market share and reputation, each brand's conversion rates, compensation paid to us and general consumer interest. Company listings on this page DO NOT imply endorsement. Except as expressly set forth in our Terms of Use, all representations and warranties regarding the information presented on this page are disclaimed. The information, including pricing, which appears on this site is subject to change at any time.